For more than six decades, Lawas, a remote district in northern Sarawak, was cut off from the state’s main power grid, relying on diesel-based power generation for its electricity supply. Since 2019, however, the area’s energy landscape has undergone a gradual transformation, shifting from fossil fuels to hydropower. At the heart of this transition is the Kota 2 mini hydroelectric plant, located near the town of Lawas, a 10.5 megawatt (MW) run-of-river facility that has become a cornerstone of Lawas’ shift towards cleaner, more sustainable energy.